Raleigh aluminium folding bikes

[FrankCrank]

Currently two Raleigh folders on Ebay, both ally, both with broken frames. Wondering if they have an issue, or maybe just coincidence:

 

[DCLane]

That looks to be a stress point so probably not a co-incidence, but a design flaw.

Raleigh's current folding bike - the Evo-2 rather than the Evo - uses a different frame design.

 

[cheys03]

Coincidence....I'd hope. Looks to be different failures. First is a failed weld, guess at not enough penetration from the tube on to the thicker plate for the hinge. Second looks like pivoting forces from the rear stays vs the frame triangle causing a stress crack and then fracture.

 

[FrankCrank]

Having had an ally folder break in half a while back, I'm of a mind that steel is a better choice for folders. I'm happy to ride a regular DF ally bike. Just my POV and gut feeling really - would be more confident on a Stowaway or Kingpin.

 

[southernmist]

That's quite a break!

 

[ExBrit]

I remember seeing a carbon fiber folding bike on Amazon a few years back which seemed like a really bad idea to me so I said so. That made the manufacturer quite angry and they told me off in Gibberish. That's the language fly-by-night Chinese companies use to write product descriptions on Amazon.

eg. "Hold press on button for exit to long lived battery"

The listing was gone a few months later. Maybe carbon fiber would work if you were 4'7" and weighed 98 lbs. That's not me. I would only buy a steel or Titanium folder.

 

[Kell]

I had two Dahon Aluminium folders and they both cracked on the seat tube near the welds.

In fairness, it turns out the recommended maximum rider weight was 97/8 kg*. At the time I was around 96.

* I was not made aware of this by Evans when I bought my bike.

 

[Kell]

Pretty sure it was only the seatpost that prevented it snapping off entirely.

 

[bonzobanana]

I definitely think steel is the right material for a folding bike. It is a denser material so the frame can be more compact and because aluminium has to be so over-built the weight advantage isn't as great as you would think. Brompton vs Dahon Curl shows the Brompton is superior in almost all areas and equal in others. The only obvious advantage is corrosion resistance. Also Accell group treat Raleigh like garbage using some very low end factories. I've looked at Raleigh bikes in various independent bike shops and haven't been impressed and think the one's I saw came from places like Bangladesh. The bikes looked like Halford's Apollo type bikes with low end components but prices were twice as much.

Dahon Boardwalk is a good s/h folding bike buy. Nice compact chromoly steel frame, fairly low weight and probably will last 3x as long as the equivilant aluminium Dahon models.